Path of Discovery
by LinariteLavanya
Summary: Riko is tasked with finding Tatsuya and his old friends and returning their memories to them, now that enough time has passed so that it poses no danger to the world. But a new threat has emerged, and Riko must join them in the fight to save mankind. -ON TEMPORARY HIATUS-
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: So….with most of my stories, there's a huge author's note that's basically me musing on how I got started on this story and what it's likely going to involve. Since having it at the start puts some people off, I've moved it to the ending author's note. You're still entirely welcome to ignore it if you like, but I like to hear what you guys think about my ideas, so…yeah. **

**This first chapter's a little on the short side, but it's sort of justified in that it **_**is**_** the first chapter; in other words, we're just getting started. ;) (The next chapter's much longer. And much better.)  
**

**Anyhow, review when you're done, please. :D**

* * *

Riko stared into her coffee cup, flashes of her dreams drifting into her mind's eye.

'_Welcome to the Velvet Room. My name is Igor.'_

She took a sip of her coffee and shuddered. It seemed she'd been just sitting there for too long; it was lukewarm. She stood up and popped it into the microwave, hitting the beverage button.

'_I apologize for the suddenness of your arrival here, but we have a task for you.'_

'…_**We?'**_

'_Regrettably, my assistants could not be here to meet you. My last assistant is on a journey of her own at the moment, and my current assistant is out on another matter…Philemon, of course, is watching over everything.'_

The microwave beeped, letting her known it was done re-heating her coffee. She reached in and grabbed her mug by the handle, noticing that now steam was coming off the pale brown beverage.

'_**I have no idea what you're talking about. Where am I?'**_

'_As I said, you are in the Velvet Room. And I'm afraid there is very little time to explain things; soon I shall have another new guest, and much of my time will need to be dedicated to him. So I must hurry and explain to you your task.'_

'…_**Task?'**_

She sipped her coffee, wincing as it scalded her tongue. She'd dreamt of her first trip to the Velvet Room for almost a full week; ever since it had happened.

It had been extremely sudden. One minute she had been walking across an abandoned school campus in an effort to get to her job earlier (she'd been running late that day, she remembered; the bus line she normally took had been canceled for some reason). The next thing she knew something resembling a black monster of goo had emerged from one of the old buildings and attacked her.

Shadows, Igor had called them. There were different types, apparently, which all came from somewhere different, though recently they seemed to embody the shadows in people's hearts.

She'd have been killed, he'd told her, if she hadn't awoken what he called her 'Persona'.

Her last thought before the Shadow lunged at her had been 'I want to live'. According to Igor, the stress of the situation had caused her Persona to manifest.

Sarasvati, her Persona had called itself. It had the appearance of a woman in green, holding some sort of string instrument. Igor had told her that her Persona was a manifestation of an aspect of her psyche. She'd told him that she had absolutely no idea what the hell he was talking about, and he'd told her patiently that she'd understand better once more time passed.

Her phone beeped, looking lonely by itself on the cold ceramic kitchen counter. She picked it up and saw a message from the owner of the maid café where she worked, confirming that she didn't have to come into work for the next two days.

Normally she wouldn't dare take any time off; her apartment's rent was a bit on the steep side. But the task Igor had given her was very important.

'_You must find them, and return their memories to them. It is imperative that you accomplish this within three months' time. If you do not…'_

"We're all screwed," she said out loud, snapping her phone shut. Igor hadn't told her what exactly would happen if she failed, but she'd gotten a distinct 'we'll all be doomed' vibe from him.

"So….find Tatsuya Suou and his old friends, huh?" She took another sip of coffee and then dumped the rest of it down the drain. "Give them their memories back…" She sighed, tucked her phone into her pocket and slipped on her jacket. "I'll have to start with whoever does still remember what actually happened." She pulled a crumpled piece of paper out of her pocket. On it was a neatly written list of seemingly random names. "Let's see, first is…Ulala Serizawa, huh? Well, let's go see what I can find."

Over two hours later, she was sitting in a public library, working on her laptop. She'd spent the first hour scouring as many listings as possible for whoever Ulala Serizawa was. And had discovered after her nineteenth dead-ended search that this person wasn't listed in any public people listings.

"Would it have been so hard just to tell me where to find these people?" she muttered, feeling vaguely irritated towards Igor. He'd given her the names to help her track down the four she was supposed to find but hadn't told her where to find them, or even what gender each person was. Just that the people on the list knew the people she was supposed to find. "Wonderful…" She tapped the keys absently. _What now?_

She opened a new search engine and tried another search, widening the parameters and search filters. Nothing.

She slammed her hand down on the table, earning her a severe glare from a business man at a nearby table.

She ignored him, and instead decided to run a search for local private detectives. You could hire them to find someone for you, right? She didn't exactly have a lot of money to spare, but it _was_ sort of an emergency, after all.

She finally found a P.I. she felt comfortable asking for help (after doing about a dozen cross checks and reading as many client reports that she could find). A man named Shun Wakahisa, who seemed to be in his early twenties, judging from the picture on his website. She wrote down his phone number and then closed her laptop, slipping it back into her old purple backpack. She smiled brightly at the business man and gave a cheekily chipper little wave before leaving the library.

Once outside, she pulled out her phone and dialed the number, impatiently listening to it ring as she strode down the sidewalk.

"This is Shun Wakahisa speaking. How may I help you?"

"Wakahisa-san, I was wondering if you could help me with something."

The voice on the other end of the call sounded tired. "And what exactly is it you need help with?"

"I need to find someone," she answered, stopping for a moment to wait for the traffic to clear so she could cross the street. "What's your going rate? The website didn't say."

"Come by my office," was his response. "We can go over what you have in mind and I can calculate how much it could cost."

"What's the address?"

He told her, she wrote it on her hand, thanked him, and then hung up.

Now she just had to find where exactly this address was. She sighed, and turned around and walked back to the library.

_If this is any sign of how this entire search is going to go, then Igor totally chose the wrong person for the job. _

She had almost made it back to the library when suddenly everything froze. The people, the cars, the little dog who'd escaped his leash and was chasing pigeons. They all froze, as if someone had pressed pause on a movie.

_Oh, great. Just what I need. _She spun around, eyes looking for what she knew was lurking somewhere nearby.

The freezing of time was caused by the Shadows, Igor had told her. It was similar to something he'd called the Dark Hour, except in this case there was the absence of what he called Tartarus and no one 'transmogrified', whatever the hell that meant. Everything just froze. Except for people with the Potential. In other words, Persona users.

As far as she knew, she was the only Persona user for miles.

_Hooray for me_, she thought dryly, still scanning for the Shadow that was sure to be close. Then something resembling a hunk of tar shaped into a wolfish form lunged at her from behind a frozen-in-time garbage truck.

She ducked, and then spun around again as it landed behind her, long claws clicking on the pavement.

It snarled at her, and she tensed.

It lunged at her again, and she took a step back, clapping her hands together with a slap. "Sarasvati!"

Her Persona appeared. "Bufula!" she shouted, and Sarasvati obeyed, using magic and slamming a large chunk of ice down on the Shadow. It struggled to get up afterwards, seeming dazed.

She clapped her hands once more. "Again," she told her Persona when it appeared for a second time. "Bufula." She didn't really need to say the attacks out loud, just like she probably didn't need to clap her hands together. But the clapping helped her focus, and as for the calling of attacks…no one was around to hear her sounding like a Pokemon trainer, so what difference did it make?

The Shadow disintegrated after the second ice attack, and after a moment time returned to normal.

She calmly hitched her backpack straps further up on her shoulders and kept walking, as if nothing had happened.

* * *

**A/N: So…you ready for my obnoxiously long rant about how this story got started?**

**Basically…I haven't played Innocent Sin or Eternal Punishment , but I've read about them, read a couple scripts, and seen the trailers for the PSP remakes (though from what I hear, they're more of ports with updated art XD) and I'm planning to play them eventually (likely when I'm no longer broke and can afford to buy them. XD). **

**In any case, I find myself really liking the characters from both P2 games, so this story will likely have…almost everyone. :D Also, while I understand the whole Tatsuya-memory-loss/two-Tatsuyas thing, I…don't like it very much. XD. It makes me sad how he had to give up all his friendships, so I figured…let's come back in a couple years, after everything has settled down a little. So, this story takes place…hmm…sort of during P4, actually. It probably won't have any P4 characters in it, though (they are busy with their own problems, after all ;D). But I'm planning to include Elizabeth and her quest to get the protagonist from P3 free from the Seal and stuff later on(though I don't know if I want the protagonist to be 'Minato' or 'Minako'…maybe I'll just have 'em both, as twins/siblings. Lots of fanfics do that, right?) and the timing seems to work out alright . **

**Anyhow, it'll all be made clear in the story. Eventually. XD**

**I'm so excited~ Oh, and just to make it clear, Riko's Persona(s), and the Personas of any other OCs that may come in later, come from P3 (I've played FES *cheers*), since I know some of those Personas pretty well and I don't really know the Personas from P4 or the P2 remakes, since I haven't played 'em. And all Shadows are just the products of my overactive imagination, though occasionally based on those in P3. XD**

**Anyway…..review, please! :D**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Chapter 2 is here! I'm posting this right after Chapter 1 because I want to get more traffic for this story. So...Enjoy! (And review. XD)**

* * *

Shun Wakahisa, Riko realized after talking to him for about ten minutes, was an exceptionally disillusioned individual. And yet was willing to work pro bono, which she found contradictory. His reason basically amounted to 'you won't pay me anyway, so I might as well just start off knowing that I'm working for nothing. Saves me the trouble of being disappointed later on'. She'd opened her mouth to object, but he'd just given her a look and she'd decided to let it go. His attitude was all the more confusing because he looked to only be a couple years older than she was; normally people in their age range were a lot more easy-going.

"So, Riko-san," he said, "You said you're looking for someone?"

She nodded, sitting down in the chair in front of his desk. "I need to find this person, immediately."

"A relative?"

"No."

"Friend?"

"No."

"Friend of a friend?"

"No."

He gave her an inscrutable look. "Why are you looking for this person, if you don't know them personally?"

She hesitated, then shrugged. "Sorry, but I can't explain. And you wouldn't believe me if I tried. Just know that it's extremely important. I need to find this person," she repeated insistently.

"You keep saying 'this person'…Is it a he or a she?"

She flushed. "I don't know."

He arched an eyebrow. "Oh?"

Her blush deepened. "I don't know whether it's a man or a woman. I only have the name."

He _tsk_ed disapprovingly. "That's not very helpful."

She crossed her arms and glared at him. "If I knew who I was looking for, I wouldn't be here asking for your help."

He sighed gustily. "I suppose that's true." He flipped open a notebook. "What's the name?"

"Ulala Serizawa."

"Ulala?" he repeated in disbelief.

She shrugged. "Don't look at me."

"Well, it's not a common name, so that should help, I guess."

"Thank you for doing this," she said sincerely.

He glanced at her. "I haven't done anything yet."

She shrugged. "But you will, and I'm grateful."

He shook his head, but said nothing.

She left not long after that, with Shun's assurance that he'd call her once he found something. She'd thanked him again, and left the office. She'd considered giving him the other names on the list, but had decided against it. It would have brought up altogether too many questions, none of which she could answer without seeming insane. And it probably wouldn't have helped in any case.

She pulled out the sheet of paper and scanned it. Igor had admitted to leaving of some information, notably the last names of the main four on her list. Which left her with very little to go on, really.

_Ulala Serizawa_

_Baofu_

_Maya Amano_

_Katsuya Suou_

_*Eikichi_

_*Lisa_

_*Jun_

_*Tatsuya_

She had no idea if Baofu was another first name, or if it were a last name, or even an alias; after all, it meant 'revenge' in Mandarin, so if someone wanted to disappear and change their identity for a payback motive, the name would fit.

Which left her with the next name on the list, Maya Amano.

_At least I can be sure this one's a girl_, she thought. She'd never heard of a boy named Maya. She just couldn't decide if she wanted to go back to the library for another online people-search or just go home for the day; she'd left her apartment at seven in the morning and it was almost four in the afternoon; she'd been at it for almost nine hours now.

She kicked at a pebble on the sidewalk and sent it skittering down the pavement. Nine hours she'd spent searching for Ulala Serizawa, with nothing to show for it. _I wouldn't have expected people-finding to be this hard. _

Suddenly the bouncing pebble stopped midair. She stared at it, then looked up and down the street. The cars had stopped, as had the cyclist who been pedaling furiously just moments before.

"I need to invest in an actual weapon at some point," she mused, looking around for Shadows. "Just using Sara all the time isn't a good idea…" she added, using her nickname for her Persona. She spotted two Shadows, black wolf-like creatures like before. Dark Hounds, she called them. One circled behind her while the other prowled straight towards her.

She clapped her hands together. "Sarasvati!"

Her Persona appeared. "Mabufu," she ordered, sending her Persona to attack both enemies at once. Her Persona obeyed, shattering ice upon both Dark Hounds. She repeated this twice more before the Hounds disintegrated, defeated.

She watched as time restarted and everything moved on as if nothing had happened. She watched as the cars drove by, their occupants unaware. The cyclist zoomed by, equally unaffected.

She felt very alone in that moment, watching the bustling people around her continue their lives, focused on whatever mundane tasks they thought were important.

_All of these people…They have no idea what's really going on. _She shivered, and zipped up her jacket, even though her shivers came from the chill of loneliness, and not the chill of the air.

* * *

Shun Wakahisa sat behind his desk. It had been almost two hours since the girl called Riko had left. He'd been working almost nonstop since she left, except for a moment when his computer had frozen, not long after the girl had gone. For the second time that day, in fact. He wondered if he should buy a new computer. One that periodically froze up for no apparent reason wasn't the most effective for his work.

Shaking his head, he reviewed his notes. He'd managed to find Ulala Serizawa after all. A woman in her 30's, with strange hair and strange attire. She was living in an area of the city that was a half hour train ride away. He picked up his phone.

"This is Riko," the voice on the other end said.

"Good evening, Riko-san. I'm sorry to disturb you so late, but I've found Serizawa-san."

"Oh." He heard her surprise through the phone. "That was fast."

"I'm very good at what I do."

There was a moment of silence, and then "So, who is it?"

"A woman in her thirties who lives and works over in the Yashu District."

Her tone of voice indicated that she was not thrilled with this bit of information. "That's across the city."

"It is," he agreed.

"Is there any way you can call her, and ask her to come here?"

"Riko-san?"

"Yeah?"

"You don't know this person, correct?"

"…Right."

"So would it not seem strange for me to call Serizawa-san, tell her there is a Riko-san who wants to speak with her, and ask her to come here, with no proper explanation for why?"

"…You have a point."

"Yes, I know."

"What did you have in mind then? I can't afford the train fare," she added.

"I'll pay for you."

"What?" came the incredulous answer.

"I like to see my cases through to the end," he informed her. "So I'll be accompanying you. I'm not exactly rich either, but I can afford to pay for your train fare as well as mine."

"Thank you."

He snorted. "Again with the thanks. I'm not doing anything impressive."

"I disagree," the quiet voice answered seriously. "This is extremely important, and I'm incredibly grateful."

He could hear the sincerity in her voice, and it made him feel awkward. Gratitude always did. "It's nothing. Look, when are you free to go Yashu?"

"I don't have work tomorrow. Is tomorrow okay for you?"

"Tomorrow is fine," he answered, while at the same time wondering what the girl's job was. She looked to be around eighteen or nineteen; she could very well still be in school. Not that he was in any position to judge a person's age; he was only twenty-two, at least ten years younger than any other private detective in the city. For all he knew the girl could be a prodigy of some sort and had graduated early, or simply looked younger than her actual age.

He shook his head, clearing his thoughts. "Meet me here at the office at eight a.m. We can walk to the station from here."

"Okay," Riko agreed. "I'll see you tomorrow then."

"Wait a moment," he said before she could hang up.

"…Yes?"

"You never told me your last name."

"No. No, I didn't."

* * *

Riko snapped her phone shut before Shun could say anything else. She was glad he was helping her, but the last thing she needed was him knowing her full name and investigating her. Because if he found her records, the odds were he'd stop helping her. It didn't matter that the records didn't reflect even a fraction of the whole story. What was written there was taken as the truth by those who read it, and she couldn't afford to lose Shun's help at this point; she needed to find Tatsuya and the others as soon as possible. He knew where exactly Serizawa was and she didn't, and Serizawa was the only link she currently had to Tatsuya.

She leaned back in her chair, and glanced at her reflection in the vanity mirror. Pale green eyes stared back at her, and her black hair was in a shaggy disheveled pixie cut, nothing like the long braid she used to wear down her back.

Her phone beeped suddenly. She flipped it open, and saw an automatic service message from her cell company telling her that the cost of her bill had been automatically withdrawn from her bank account.

She deleted the message and closed her phone.

* * *

Riko tapped her foot as she rang the doorbell to Shun's office. She'd tried the door, but it was locked. She rang the doorbell again, impatient.

"Hello? Wakahisa-san?" She jabbed the button again. "Hello?"

"Knock it off!" came an irritated voice from inside, muffled by the door.

She pressed the buzzer one more time and then took a step back, crossing her arms.

The door opened, and Shun emerged, looking decidedly sleepy and disheveled. Unlike the previous day when he'd been wearing a simple white dress shirt and slacks, today he was in a blue turtleneck and jeans, and his hair was sticking up in all directions. He looked like an exhausted college student.

She arched an eyebrow. "Did I wake you?"

He rubbed a hand over his face. "Sorry. My alarm didn't go off."

She tilted her head. "We can put this off if you like." Well, actually she couldn't afford to wait, but she felt an odd tug at her heart seeing Shun looking the way he did. "Are you okay?"

He nodded jerkily. "I'm fine. I was just up late working another case for a friend of mine. Just let me grab my wallet and we can go."

She nodded. "Okay."

He came back a moment later, his wallet in hand and his hair looking a little more tidy. "Shall we?"

She smiled. "Yeah. Let's go."

"So…" Shun said after they'd walked halfway to the train station in silence, "How old are you?"

She blinked, surprised. "How old do I look?"

"Seventeen, eighteen?"

"I'm nineteen," she answered.

"Ah, so you have graduated high school, then."

"Ehhh…Not exactly."

He looked over at her. "What do you mean, 'not exactly'?"

"I dropped out in my senior year," she said honestly.

"Why?"

The answer to that question strayed into dangerous territory. "Some stuff happened, alright? That's all you need to know."

He frowned but let it go.

"How old are you?" Riko asked suddenly.

"Twenty-two."

"Huh."

"What?"

"Nothing. It's just that you look…you know, good."

"Good?" he repeated, confused.

"You know. Hot, sexy, handsome." She shrugged, and then blushed slightly. "Not that I care. It's just an observation." She had neither the time nor the inclination to date anyone. Even if she did she'd have to find someone who was either okay with their girlfriend running off to fight monsters or someone who also had the Potential. Both situations were extremely unlikely.

"So….do you have a job?" Shun asked after a slightly awkward silence.

"Uh, yeah. I work at a café."

"Which café?"

"Kiki's."

He raised an eyebrow. "Isn't that a maid café?"

She flushed again. "Yeah. What of it?"

He shook his head. "Nothing. You just don't seem like the type to work at a café like that."

She shrugged, blush subsiding. "I know the owner. After I dropped out of school I needed a job, so she hired me."

"Nice of her."

"Mm." She bit her lip. "Look, why are you asking me all of this? I didn't hire you to research me."

"Technically you didn't hire me at all," he pointed out. "I volunteered, remember? Pro bono."

"And I said that I can pay you! Maybe not all at once, but eventually I'll have enough money to cover-"

Suddenly everything stopped moving, except her.

And oddly enough, Shun Wakahisa.

She stared at him. "You're still moving."

He glanced at her, as if she'd lost her mind. "Yeah?" Then he noticed that the rest of the world seemed to have frozen in place. "…What the hell?"

She looked at him as if he were an alien. "You're still moving," she repeated.

"Why has everything else stopped?" he demanded, spinning around. "What the hell's going on?"

"…I don't believe it…" she laughed weakly, covering her eyes with a hand. "_You_ have the Potential?"

"What are you talking about?" Shun asked angrily, whirling to face her. "What's going on here?"

She didn't answer, just kept chuckling quietly in a half-hearted sort of way.

"Hey!" he grabbed her shoulders and shook her. "Explain what the hell this is right now!"

She stopped laughing suddenly and yanked away from him. "Hands off," she said irritably.

"What. Is. Going. On."

"Hmm…" She looked around. "Well, we're about to be attacked by a monster. Maybe more than one monster, actually. Won't know until they show themselves."

He frowned, still confused. "What are you talking about? Monsters?"

"Shadows," she clarified. "They're called Shadows. They take a lot of different shapes."

"Shadows," he repeated.

She nodded. "Yes. They used to show up in a different way in the past, but here time stops when they show up to attack whoever their target is. Normally people don't notice," she added. "Only those with the Potential are able to move around normally. I'm told it's similar to a prior phenomenon called the 'Dark Hour', though I have no idea what that actually is so…." She shrugged. "Basically, time stops when Shadows appears."

"So why aren't we frozen like the rest of them?" Shun asked weakly, gesturing to the frozen cars and pedestrians. "Why can we still move around."

"I'm a Persona user." She looked at him seriously. "And it seems you are, too."

"…Persona?"

She opened her mouth to answer, and then stopped. She spun around. "Here they come!"

"What?" He whirled around, and saw three large blobs of black lurching towards them. "_Those_ are Shadows?"

"They'll show their true forms once they get closer," she informed him.

"What do you mean, 'true form'?" This was without a doubt the most confusing conversation of his life.

Before Riko could answer, the Shadows did it for him, morphing into new shapes. Eventually, they resembled large lions covered in spikes.

"That's new," Riko observed. "I've never seen a type like this before."

"_This sort of thing is normal for you?"_

"Remember how I said that I couldn't tell you why I needed to find that person?" she asked offhandedly, taking a couple steps forward. "This is the reason."

He stared at her.

"I'm not lying," she said, glaring at him. "Now, you're useless without your Persona. Since you obviously have no idea how to summon it, just stay out of the way."

"Stay out of the-!" He felt a surge of irritation. "Just who do you think you are?"

But the girl was ignoring him. She clapped her hands together, and suddenly energy swirled around her, coalescing in the figure of a woman; dressed in green with a gold headdress, with what seemed to be a white scarf of some sort, carrying an instrument.

"That's…?"

"My Persona," Riko told him. "Sarasvati." _**Mabufu**_, she ordered mentally. She didn't want to shout her attacks with Shun standing right there. It would lead to a slew of new questions; besides, it would be embarrassing.

Ice crystals shattered over the Shadows, but seemed to have little effect. "Well," she said, looking at the enemies, "that's not good." Suddenly one of the Shadows lunged at her. She leapt to the side, only to be swatted down by one of the other Shadows. She crashed into the hard pavement, skinning her elbow.

_Shit_. She rolled, barely dodging the next paw that slammed down. She made to stand, and discovered that she'd been effectively boxed in by two of the three shadows. The third was going after Shun.

"Hurry up and run!" she shouted, feeling oddly panicked.

Shun however, seemed to stuck in place, too scared to move.

"Wakahisa-san!" she yelled, narrowly avoiding a clawing to the face. "_Shun!_"

He jumped slightly, startled, and looked at her. Then he looked at the Shadow coming after him.

She shouted something as the Shadow leapt at him, but it was drowned out by a sudden blasting sound. The sound was accompanied by a bright flash of light, and she shut her eyes to avoid being blinded.

When she opened them, all she could do was gawk.

Shun had summoned his Persona. It seemed to be a large man, dressed simply, with some sort of horned helmet, carrying a large hammer.

"Thor," Shun whispered, barely loud enough for her to here.

Suddenly Thor slammed his hammer down on the attacking Shadow, and it dissolved in nothingness.

It was then that Riko remembered that _she _was about to be killed by two very volatile Shadows. She moved to clap her hands together, but before she could summon Saravati, two blasts of lightning came from the sky and obliterated the Shadows.

She turned to look at Shun. He gave her a weak smile, and then collapsed. She ran to his side, and noticed that sometime during the fight he'd gotten injured. _Well, that's just super. We're both injured and exhausted. _But no amount of her dry humor was going to help heal them. And she needed to hurry and do something before time returned to normal. Otherwise someone was bound to notice that two people who'd been walking by normally were suddenly on the ground bleeding. No one was _that _oblivious. She bit her lip. _Help…Please…I need help. _She clenched her fists. _Help. _Nothing. She slammed her fist into the ground, and suddenly there was another bright flash.

And then nothing.

* * *

**A/N: Well, that was Chapter 2. How was it? I know Persona 2's not anywhere as popular as P3 or P4, but I could really use some feedback. So...Kindly review and let me know what you think. :D **


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